After over ten years, the South West LHIN bids farewell to its Critical Care Lead, Dr. Michael Sharpe

NEWS
March 31, 2017
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

London, ON – After over ten years as the South West LHIN Critical Care Lead, Dr. Michael Sharpe is retiring from the position. Dr. Sharpe has served as the LHIN’s Critical Care Lead since its inception in 2006, working one day per week with the LHIN to help strengthen the critical care system across the LHIN and the entire province. His experience, advice and guidance helped all health system partners better understand the role critical care plays in the larger context of health care, and helped develop a strategic direction for critical care management across our geography.

Dr. Sharpe maintained his role as a Critical Care Intensivist at London Health Sciences Centre allowing him to maintain a strong, working understanding of the challenges and opportunities in critical care both locally and provincially.

Dr. Sharpe graduated from the University of Western Ontario where he specialized in Anesthesiology and Critical Care. Over the course of his career, in addition to his practice of adult critical care medicine, Dr. Sharpe has served in several eminent roles – he is a distinguished professor, consultant and has received many awards. For his provincial work in organ and tissue transplant wait times, Dr. Sharpe received the Lifetime Achievement Award, Trillium Gift of Life Network in April 2016.

Dr. Sharpe has been relentless in his pursuit of improvement for patients who experience the critical care system. He has leveraged his extensive understanding of critical care to advocate for local and provincial change when gaps in care or service have been identified. His insights and leadership were instrumental in several successful South West LHIN and provincial initiatives including:

Establishing the Life or Limb policy across the LHIN which was later adopted provincially. The policy ensures no patient with conditions that could cause loss of life or limb wait to be transferred to, or are refused care at, the hospital that is best suited to meet their critical care needs.

Enabling the adoption and utilization of CritiCall, a 24-hour-a-day emergency and consultation service, to facilitate all Life or Limb patient referrals and improve access to an Intensive Care Unit physician. This initiative also helped to appropriately distribute critical care patients within the South West LHIN Intensive Care Units to make best use of all critical care services.

Championing long-term mechanical ventilation initiatives including partnerships between hospitals, the Community Care Access Centre, and Participation House to allow patients who require mechanical ventilation for extended periods to return home, or to a community setting, and live outside of an Intensive Care Unit.

The South West LHIN would like to acknowledge and thank Dr. Sharpe for his steadfast leadership and expertise which has had a positive impact for patients and families across the South West LHIN.

QUOTES

“It has been a remarkable experience serving as the Critical Care Lead for the South West LHIN. Over the last ten years I have had the opportunity to work with many passionate people within all of our hospitals who were committed to improving critical cares services throughout the South West LHIN. In particular, I would like to thank South West LHIN CEO Michael Barrett and my administrative liaisons, Carrie Jeffreys, Kelly Simpson, and Andrea McInerney for their continuous and full support. I am very proud of the work we have accomplished to improve the quality and access to care for critically ill patients and their families.”

- Dr. Michael Sharpe, outgoing Critical Care Lead for the South West LHIN

“It has been an honour working with Dr. Sharpe over the past decade. He has brought tremendous experience, insight, passion and dedication to improving the quality of the critical care system across both the LHIN and the province. Dr. Sharpe’s strength has been his ability to identify gaps and needed improvements, and then successfully engage partners to develop initiatives which address these gaps, and ultimately create a stronger critical care system for patients and their families.”

– Michael Barrett, Chief Executive Officer, South West LHIN

Backgrounder

Dr. Sharpe is currently a full-time Critical Care Intensivist at the London Health Sciences Centre (University Hospital) and Professor of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine at Western University. The South West Critical Care Lead is responsible for working with hospitals, community support service organizations, LHINs, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, and various health sector stakeholders to identify and support the implementation of the Critical Care Ontario Strategy that aims to improve access, quality and system integration for patients in Ontario’s critical care system.

Recruitment for a new South West LHIN Critical Care Lead is almost complete, with a new Lead to be announced shortly.

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For more information:
Ashley Jackson
Director, Communications and Community Engagement
519-640-2604
1-866-294-5446